This
month Twitter announced several changes to their safety
policies, following constructive dialogue with CST and several other
groups. CST is pleased that following extensive reporting by CST and others,
several antisemitic accounts who harassed Jewish users and spread Holocaust
denial and antisemitism have been suspended from the platform.
Four
accounts in particular that have been regular and repeat offenders for a long
time, @AJCTMusic, @SplottDave, @JOYOURPAPARAZZI and @Smeggypants, have all been
suspended by Twitter since their new safety policies were introduced. We hope
this will signal a reduction in the amount of antisemitic harassment on the
platform.
The
most obvious form of antisemitism all the users engaged in was demonisation and
dehumanisation of Jewish users or those seen as assisting the Jewish community,
who were often portrayed as parasites, rodents or inhuman slaves of the “Israel
lobby”. Other users used conspiracy theories that referred to Zionists or to
Israel in ways that classical antisemitism depicted Jews, such as by referring
to “tentacles” of the Jews or Zionists – a common classic antisemitic trope.
Additionally,
all the users engaged in Holocaust denial, or attempted to use Nazism to attack
Israel, Zionists or Jews, in order to undermine and attack and Jewish users in
the most offensive way possible.
We
will not reproduce all of their antisemitic output here, because to do so would
involve re-publishing a large amount of antisemitic material that has now,
thankfully, been removed from Twitter. However, here is a small number of
examples to illustrate the antisemitic abuse they propagated online:
CST thanks the several users who brought these accounts to our attention. CST also thanks Twitter for their efforts to reduce the amount of antisemitism on their platform. We will continue to work with Twitter to help make their new safety policies as effective as possible, and to monitor their implementation and suggest ways in which they can be improved further so that Jewish users can have a safe experience.
